Kegs... leaky without CO2 pressure

Kegging
1

Hey all - I’m setting up my first draft/kegging system, and am still ironing out some kinks. So, last night I was sanitizing a couple kegs that I was planning on filling tonight. When I had the kegs about half full of sanitizer, I was shaking them up and holding them upside down to get the SanStar distributed over all surfaces. The kegs were leaking around the lid. I put new O-rings on prior to the sanitizing, so that’s not the problem.

I’m wondering if adding CO2 pressure to my kegs will solve this problem. I fear it will not, I am pissed off thinking I bought some defective kegs.

I know the obvious response is “hook them up and test them”, but my tank is empty right now… and I won’t have a chance to refill for a while.

What do you guys think?

2

Have you tried lubing up the o-rings? Keg lube stick, or if you don’t have that, mineral oil before a spritz of sanitizer.

3

I am not familiar with a keg lube stick… I will look into that.

Anyone else have suggestions/speculation whether or not my kegs are defective?

4

They are likely fine. The lid will seal up when you add pressure to the keg.

5

Its really any of these

http://home-brewing.northernbrewer.com/ ... =Lube&rk=3

But IME mineral oil works just as well.

6

Thank you all for the responses. Keeping my fingers crossed and will test out tonight with refilled gas tank.

7

You can get plumbers grease at any hardware store. The cost should be $2-3.

When you had the sanitizer in the keg, you needed to put some pressure in the keg to seal the lid. Otherwise the lid will likely leak.

It’s usually standard procedure to apply 30+ psi to a keg after filling with beer to “set” the lid.

Your kegs are fine.

8

[quote=“Nighthawk”]

Your kegs are fine.[/quote]

How right you are. Applied some lube, filled with CO2, no leaks. Porter and wheat carbonating as I type… thanks again to all.

9

For future reference, I found that a standard bicycle tire pump fits great over the 1/4" barbs on the gas-in and beer-out connectors. I used this method to check for leaks on a few used kegs I was purchasing back before I had a CO2 cannister.